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Dear <<First Name>>,
Greetings from Los Angeles! Since the Lord has raised-up so many dynamic, gifted and mature Women's Ministry Leaders in the City of Angels Church, Elena and the sisters decided to have four separate Women's Days in 2013! All four of these momentous events shared the same heartfelt theme of Priceless from Psalm 36:7, "How priceless is your unfailing love!"
"Priceless" was Carol Castillo's presence at the
Sheraton Hotel Women's Day – her first church
meeting after our prayers healed her from
only having hours to live from
cancer complications!
On Saturday, February 23rd, the OC and IE Regions – led by Theresa Broom – saw God move, as the combined 80 women disciples witnessed 240 in attendance! Then this past weekend, on Saturday, March 2nd, Sonja Chloupek led the AMS, North and Ventura Regions to a great victory, as their 68 disciples had exactly 200 in attendance! Then, the next day on Sunday, March 3rd at the Downtown LA Sheraton Hotel, the Central, East, South, South Central and West sisters were inspired by Kacie Comisford, as the 172 sisters gathered had 420 in attendance with four baptisms! So with the Spanish-speaking Women's Day yet to come on Saturday, March 16th, already 322 sisters have glorified God with a collective attendance of 860! Elena spoke at the Downtown LA Sheraton on the incredible theme – Priceless! In my opinion, this lesson was one of Elena's very best! It can be heard in its entirety at CAICC.net!
Some of the highlights of yesterday's Women's Day
were Elena's dynamic preaching, Kacie's
organization, and Adrianna's singing!
Also, this week, the Lord added a total of eight to our number – seven baptisms and one restoration! And to God be the glory!
Now more detailed reports from around LA…
Lou Jack Martinez of the Central Region's Antelope Valley Sector: IT WAS A BAD EIGHT DAYS FOR THE DEVIL IN THE AV, AS FERNANDO LOPEZ LARA and KAROL URIBE WERE BAPTIZED LAST SUNDAY, AND ELEANOR SOLORZANO WAS BAPTIZED TODAY!!! Our sister ROSE CHASE, wife of PETER CHASE, is an amazing woman of God who loves sharing the gospel of God almost as much as she loves God Himself!!! She was shopping at Ross (so she could "dress for less" and save more for Special) and asked Fernando and Karol if they'd like to come to church. Their eyes lit up, because they were looking for a church! Once they came through the doors of the Lancaster City Park Indoor Activity Center, they never looked back!!! In fact, in one week, they attended THREE Bible Talks, a midweek Service and a Sunday Service!
Everybody was involved in their studies, and it was during a talk with EDDIE AGUIRRE that they confessed they were not married, but engaged and living together in sin, along with their beautiful daughter and Karol's little brother Angel. They were challenged to either get married immediately (if they planned to stay together forever) or move-out from each other until they decided on what they wanted to do. Both of them wanted to be together; but they wanted to be born-again even more!!! So, despite some opposition from his religious parents, Fernando moved-in with them and was baptized!!! Immediately after Fernando's baptism, he baptized his fiancée, Karol!!! They will soon be joined together in HOLY Matrimony this April!!!
Fernando, Karol and their families!
Eleanor Solorzano's is an amazing story of disappointment, false religion, trial and tribulation, and a new-found faith that saves!!! Eleanor was having major challenges with her children, and in her desperation she cried out to God, but God didn't answer her the way she was hoping. Instead of persevering in her faith, she became a Buddhist for 16 years! When her health began to deteriorate – to the point of needing TWO heart transplants – she finally was humbled enough to try God… AGAIN!
At this very same time, Moni Bhalla – who originally reached out to Eleanor – got back in touch, and invited her to church and a Bible study afterwards. Eleanor became urgent when she realized that she had never become a disciple and needed to be baptized! So she asked Moni, Lona and Lola to help her get baptized as soon as possible. These sisters studied diligently with her, and today Eleanor was baptized into Christ!!! Now one of her sons is studying the Bible and she invited the other son to come visit as well!!! Our God is FAITHFUL, no matter how FAITHLESS we get!
Chris Chloupek: Grace, peace and "How ya do'in" from the AMS Region! First of all, I am so proud of my wife, Sonja, who pulled off an amazing Women's Day Event on Saturday with the help of Brandyn Speckman and Shay Sears from the Ventura and North Regions respectively. Also, what a great experience for our friends visiting the Women's Day to see a godly dating relationship begin!!! Joe Brown asked Morgan Martin to be his girlfriend in front of everyone at the Women's Day!
Saturday's Women's Day closed with the song
Golden, spontaneously pulling every one
out of their seats to dance!
All of these events led to an astonishing Sunday service today! Excitingly, a young man named Anthony, who is studying at the Theatre of Arts Academy in Hollywood, was baptized into Christ!
This is the year we are taking our Music Ministry higher! Jason & Susan Bond are doing an amazing job pulling in various artists with creative ways to improve our song worship. But the highlight for me was my Mom (Judy), who is 72 years old, and Ginny, who is 87 years old, and both sold-out disciples in our Phoenix Church came to LA this weekend to attend our Women’s Day and church service on Sunday. My Mom shared a very humble, powerful communion that had us all laughing and very moved. It is so encouraging to see the older, (mature) people becoming disciples "more and more!" (2 Corinthians 4:15) They bring such a rich wealth of wisdom and gentleness to our fellowships. Life is good; God is good, and the party is in Heaven! But it is still a lot of fun down here!
Close partners in the gospel, Ginny and Judy
are zealous for God, His church
and His mission!
Theresa Broom of the OC Region: "Do you not say, 'Four more months and then the harvest?' I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even NOW the reaper draws his wages, even NOW he harvests the crop for eternal life!" (John 4:35-36) NOW we rejoice in the great victories God is giving the Women's Ministries throughout the City of Angels Church! On Saturday, I was privileged to be a part of the "Great North" Women's Day in Hollywood led by my best friend Sonja Chloupek! Many women used their talents to dance and sing. Of special note, Brandyn Speckman moved our hearts as she performed a powerful "one woman monologue!"
One woman, who traveled all the way from Orange County to celebrate her birthday by bringing her mother to Women's Day, was Lesa Jacks! Lesa first contacted my husband Chris just three weeks ago, after getting our number off our church website! She had been baptized in the ICOC in the 1990's, but had fallen away several years ago. She knew she needed to return to God but when she went back to our former fellowship, she did not find the same call to God's standard that she had received when she was baptized. When she read our website, she was once again drawn to the sold-out commitment that Jesus demands of everyone that would follow Him! (Luke 14:33) Lesa loved how the women who shared their testimonies at the Great North Women's Day humbly took full responsibility for their sins and showed a clear path of repentance, just as she witnessed at last week's OC/IE Women's Day, which Lesa had attended as well! These examples helped Lesa to be restored today in our OC Region!
NOW we also rejoice with our OC Spanish Sector as Jessica Zepeda baptized her best friend Gabriela today! Although Gabriela had studied a year ago, she recently came back with a soberness and seriousness that she did not have before! NOW God is continuing to use women powerfully as during today's church service Brianna Rodriguez (Teen Ministry) and Jennifer Habib (Campus Ministry) shared humbly and with tears about their lives for our communion and contribution messages! Truly NOW with so many studies set-up from our Women's Days, so many are "ripe for harvest!"
The Women's Day of the IE and OC Regions
moved many women to become disciples!
David Jefferson – South Region Intern: Today we celebrated as Kierra was added to our number at our Annual Women's Day! Kierra is a very soft-hearted, young woman who from her first study was determined "to seek God with all her heart." Also, it was great the week before to see our dear sister Miriah come back and get restored to the Lord and His church.
The South Sisters surround Kierra
after her awesome baptism!
I'm so grateful to be in the South Region, as they are such an amazing group of disciples, who are working tirelessly to not only raise money for Special Missions, but at the same time forcefully advance the gospel – even during this time of great transition! We are all fired-up, as Oleg & Aliona Sirotkin on Sunday, March 10th, will become the official South Region Leaders! This "hand-over" will enable Jason & Sarah to focus completely on the Las Vegas Mission Team, which will be sent-out from LA on April 14th! Please keep the Las Vegas Team in your prayers, as the weekend of March 14-17 will be our "spying out the land" weekend, appropriately titled, Oasis Not Mirage! Much love to all!
The Las Vegas Church logo was creatively
designed reminding all of the famous
"Welcome to Las Vegas Sign!"
DJ Comisford: It was an incredible week for the West Region and for me personally! On Sunday, my wife "emceed" the Women's Day for the West, Central, South Central, East and South Regions. I was there to hear her do the welcome and she "stole my heart" again with her grace, confidence and beauty! (Song of Songs 4:9-10) Also, at Women's Day, our West LA Bible Talk was fruitful yet again with a young woman named Kalicia! Congratulations to all the women for putting together such a life-changing event!
Then later on in the evening, Kacie & I took Nathalie Moningka and Mason Fetelika out to eat at the Chart House in Malibu for his "birthday." At least that is what we told Nathalie, which was true but… Secretly, after dinner I was able to sneak Mason's guitar down to the beach so when they went on a prayer walk to Nathalie's surprise there was Mason's guitar! He picked it up and sang "their song!" Then Mason got down on one knee and asked Nathalie to be his wife! And with no hesitation, Nathalie said yes!!! Congratulations to Mase & Nat who mean so much to me & Kacie! We will be infinitely sad to have them "torn away" from us to go on the Sydney Mission Team in December… but the world must be evangelized!
Mason & Nathalie immediately after she said, "Yes!"
Now more reports from around the globe…
Alvin Panlilio and Gina Dela Peña of Manila: God is so awesome, as Melvin De Leon & Rose Sobrino were baptized in the Lord and added to His awesome advancing movement here on Earth! Melvin was our very first visitor when we began our Bible Talk, and he is one of Jason's employees. Rose is one of Kim's friends! Rose was very active in her Baptist Church, and in fact, she was leading the youth ministry in her former church! She was in tears when she shared how grateful she is to have finally found the true church! Her stated dream is to be a part of a mission team someday!
The Metro Manila Church gathers after the baptisms
of Melvin and Rose and gives them a sign that says,
"Melvin & Rose – Welcome into God's Family!"
We are in awe of how GOD has been bringing people to HIS KINGDOM! Right now with 12 sold-out members of the Metro Manila International Christian Church, we have 34 people studying the Bible and four of these want to get restored as soon as possible! Truly, "the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few!" (Matthew 9:37)
Andrew Smellie of New York City: "In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some are for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work." (2 Timothy 2:20-21) Greetings from NYC! Today, we concluded our series entitled On The Anvil, as the Word was preached on becoming "an instrument of noble purposes" for the Lord!
The analogy of being on an anvil is based on God being the blacksmith and us being His tools in His shop… The state of where we are in the shop is up to us! We can either sit in the cobwebbed corner, oblivious to our calling and useless to God, or we can lie on the anvil, and accept the pounding as He shapes and refines us to be useful to Him and then be placed in the blacksmith's tool chest, ready and available to His calling! Today two more souls decided to be used as God's "instruments for noble purposes" as Shauna, a single mom in the Bronx, and Enrique, a campus student in Manhattan, were joyfully baptized into Christ! It was inspiring to see the joy on the faces of Enrique's mom and step-dad as they joined us for service, as well as the gratitude of Chris Bryant, a remnant disciple (and now a great friend) from Los Angeles who was in town for work in NYC and is now even more eager to join our SoldOut Movement!
The NYC Brothers are stoked
after Enrique's baptism!
As we prepare for a month of "Spiritual March Madness" for the Lord, God is helping us to blow-out our Prayer Goals, both in bearing the fruit of souls and in raising funds to bring the hope of salvation to more cities! Please pray for us as we close in on our Prayer Goal of 120 disciples, as the Lord has blessed us with nine baptisms in the past three weeks! Also, I have been consistently encouraged to hear the good news of the disciples who have already reached and surpassed their 15X Missions Goals! Lastly, we are pleased to host our first AMS Talent Showcase and our Second Annual "Run for Missions" on the George Washington Bridge to help achieve this goal! May God continue to bless all of our plans in all of God's churches, as we humbly stay focused on pleasing Him! We love you!
Raul Moreno of Sao Paulo: "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12) The good news this week is our "Kingdom Kid teenager" Lucas Cruz. Lucas was baptized about a year ago and this week God used him to baptize his high school friend Flavia! Also, his mother, who fell away, has been coming out for weeks after seeing him change so much, and now she has made the decision to be restored to Christ! Teens can do so much in God's Kingdom!
Ricky Challinor of Portland: Greetings from the City of Bridges!!! This week was incredible as we saw a young campus man baptized who is a student at Mount Hood Community College – Warren!!! He was met by our fruitful and zealous young leader Daniel, who has known him since middle school! Warren is an incredible young man who is full of potential to do great things! Excitingly, this now puts us at three different campuses: PSU which is led by Aaron Turner; PCC Sylvania led by Daniel, which had 14 visitors at Bible Talk; and now Mount Hood CC!
Daniel Morales, Dan Upshaw and all the disciples
applaud Warren's decision for Christ!
Also, during the week our South Marrieds Bible Talk, which is led by Richard & Khanni Coaile, had a blow-out Bible Talk with 19 visitors!!! This Bible Talk has already been very fruitful and prayerfully will be able to duplicate soon! Please continue to pray for us as we are reaping the fruits of our Bring Your Neighbor Day Service!
Lola Lof of Kinshasa: Warm greetings from your dear brothers and sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo! Our Sunday worship was exceptionally phenomenal even though "it rained dogs and cats" all the day long! The transportation was "inferno," and brothers and sisters had to walk in deep mud to come to church! Despite the obstacles, the Congolese disciples of Jesus overcame it as 230 attended the service!
We opened the service with the inspirational song of the Kingdom, I AM THE LORD’S SOLDIER – in French version: JE SUIS UN SOLDAT DU SOLDAT DU SEIGNEUR! The rest of the songs were even more enthusiastically sung! And at the end of service, the waters of baptism were stirred as two more were added by God to our group: Prospère and Guelor! To God be all the glory!
Steve Ranga: Greetings from Syracuse! God has been moving powerfully in Syracuse, as Nicole and Reyla were restored today! They both shared powerfully how they searched for the Kingdom for the past nine years. They sought the help of our former fellowship, but there was no response from anyone. They shared how they felt lost and desperately searched for God and His Kingdom, but did not know where to go!
A sister named Vonetta "happened to be at the right place at the right time" and invited Nicole to church. (Acts 17:26-27) As she started speaking, Nicole stopped her and asked if she was a disciple. They exchanged phone numbers… And Nicole called her just five minutes later! Nicole then came to church that Sunday and brought her friend Reyla, who was also desperately looking for the Kingdom! These two soldiers of Christ had the entire congregation in tears, as they proclaimed that each disciple has to just open their mouth and share their faith with the lost… That is all it takes, as God is giving the ones Satan has captive a chance to be free!
Matt Sullivan of Orlando: "Paul took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the Word of the Lord." (Acts 19:9-10) The Lord continues to blow it out in our amazing Campus Ministry led by Mike & Chenelle Patterson! Almost daily, we have Bible Talks on campus at UCF, and just a few weeks ago, we began a new Bible Talk at the Valencia East Campus led by Johnny Cortez! Excitingly, this past week, they had 15 in attendance! On Thursday, we were fired-up to see Clayton – another UCF student – baptized into Christ! God has given us our own "halls of Tyrannus," right here in Florida on two incredible campuses. God is awesome!
Mike Patterson's secret weapon for
getting people to Bible Talk!
George Grima: There is a lot of great momentum here in the Paris Church right now! Our Women's Day is fast approaching this Saturday! The women and men are working to get visitors out for this awesome event. The brothers are also getting closer to each other. At the admonishment of our incredible leader – Philippe Scheidecker – brothers gathered together for prayer and singing last Wednesday for several hours. Every country in the world was prayed for during this intense time of prayer at Philippe's home.
In addition to listening to current lessons from the LA Staff Meetings from Kip, we have also added another exciting learning opportunity, as we have expanded our Wednesday Staff Meeting to include a lesson on Skype with Tim Kernan! All of us enjoyed a great lesson by Tim and welcomed the challenge this week from 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 on greater imitation and trust. We were all excited "to see" Tim and catch his wisdom!
Today was a House Church Sunday which provided a great opportunity for Anthony Olmos to preach to the Campus and Phil McCallum to the Singles and Marrieds! Both Anthony's and Phil's French have really improved in the first two months of 2013! Lastly, the Paris Church continues to love each other, as we celebrated Phil McCallum's and Prisca Scheidecker's birthdays this last week!
The Paris Sisters celebrate Prisca's birthday!
Maria Franklin of Chicago: "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth." (Ecclesiastes 12:1) This week has been inspiring as the Campus has led the charge! To start off, on Thursday, Umberto from the mighty West Campus Ministry at Morton College was baptized! He persevered through intense persecution from his family, who even set up an intervention to stop him from making the decision to follow God! He shared today at service about his incredible gratitude for God and his new spiritual family!
Umberto endured severe persecutions
to enter the Kingdom of God!
On Friday night, we kicked-off our Campus Weekend where six of our zealous brothers preached powerfully! Then the fun continued on Saturday where the ministry broke-up into teams and went throughout the Chicagoland Campuses on an adventurous scavenger hunt! Sunday morning, through the creative leadership of the Millers, the Campus Ministry held a free pancake breakfast inviting hungry college students! Then these same students flocked to church, as we had an attendance of 338! The sermon was divided into three sections: Nana Ofosu Budu preached on Purity; William Hunt on Love; and Dustin Miller on Passion! Encouragingly to my soul was to see our dear brother Joel restored to his "first love." He humbly apologized to the congregation for breaking his commitment to God and leaving God's Kingdom! Then to close the service, our hearts were torn as we sent-off our dear sister, Luz Vazquez. She will be moving to be with her family in Orlando and join our sister church there.
Last but not least, during our Leaders Meeting, we witnessed a third and great miracle! The first of many teen boys was added to the Teen Ministry, encouragingly led by my awesome husband – Anthony! King, a 16 year old who attends Chicago Talent Development High School, was reached-out to on the streets of Chicago by Daijon! At his baptism, King enthusiastically shared Ecclesiastes 12:1 along with his new conviction to not only "remember [his] Creator on the days of his youth," but to live for Him for the rest of his life! Please keep the Chicago Teen Ministry in your prayers!
King embraces his mom after his baptism!
Michael Williamson: "And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message…" (Colossians 4:3) Greetings from London, England! The Apostle Paul prized his Roman citizenship as it proved to be valuable to him several times in his missionary adventures! In a similar way, I too rejoice, because after several long months of prayers, God has moved the British Government to approve my application for "Indefinite Leave to Remain," which is equivalent to "Permanent Residency" in England!
Also, this Friday night's Open Mic Night was spectacular attracting many talented young artists from all over London. One gentleman whose music is on iTunes, wrote a song entitled "OMV" – "Open Mic Veteran" dedicated to this Kingdom inspired event!
We closed out Sunday with the baptism of CJ, an incredibly humble University of East London Campus student! Before he was baptized, he powerfully shared that he would not have become a disciple if it wasn't for the church's love! Additionally, we've secured a Five Star Hotel for the 2013 European Missions Conference! The Marriott is offering us discounted rates of £125 ($188) including breakfast and tax, or £115 ($173) room and tax alone! Save the dates: Thursday evening, November 7 for the Speaker's Dinner; Friday morning, November 8 for the Church Builder's Workshop; and November 8-10, 2013 for the actual European Missions Conference!
Coltin Rohn: Greetings from Boston known as "the spirit of America!" "There will be a highway for the remnant of His people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt." (Isaiah 11:16) I believe that our God is building that "highway" in Boston! Today was an electric service as we are now "packing into" the room we meet for church and will have to soon find a new venue! To God be the glory!
One of the reasons the room was so "packed" today was because of all our faithful brothers and sisters visiting us from our former fellowship! In fact, we counted six out of the fifty two people that gathered to worship our Heavenly Father were faithful remnant (veteran) disciples! One of the remnant visitors said to me, "I loved service! I felt like a kid again listening to the Word of God!" Another shared, "Service was great! I want to study this week to become a member!" And still another said, "I may be 65, but I want to do something for God!" All were encouraged by the "angelic singing" and of course the "spirited" fellowship. Pray as many are on their way to the waters of baptism, as we strive to put the "Spirit" back into the great city of Boston! To God be all our praise and glory!
Evan Bartholomew of San Diego: Greetings from the "other city" in Southern California! God has been moving in a variety of ways here in the church, and it is so very encouraging to see the momentum building! First, God blessed us with the baptism of Sheng! She works in an administrative position for one of the hospitals in San Diego, and is a wife and the mother of two amazing kids.
Several years ago, she saw that her life was in constant turmoil and knew she needed God to fix it. Not knowing where to go, she turned to the largest church in all of San Diego – a church which boasts an attendance of 16,000. Ironically, she tried to sign-up to be baptized several times because something was telling her that she needed to be baptized in order to be closer to God. Yet every time she tried to get on "The List," she was too late or something came up. It was at that time that her husband was invited to one of our Marrieds Bible Talks! Sheng is an awesome woman, and a great addition to the San Diego Church!
Sheng is so grateful for finding God's church!
Secondly, the church was encouraged by the third disciple of the "San Diego Six" – Kensey Perkins – who moved down from the City of Angels Church this past week. Thank you so much DJ & Kacie, and the entire West Region of LA, for your generosity in giving us such an amazing disciple! Lastly, the church has been on an "evangelistic rampage" as every campus disciple has taken the challenge of sharing with 30 people a day, and every single disciple is sharing with 10 people a day! This has produced a plethora of studies, as there are more studies than there are disciples in the church! (A good problem to have!) "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." (Psalm 73:1)
Carlos Mejia: Greetings from the saints in Santiago! Today was an awesome day as a young man by the name of Marcos was baptized into Christ! Marcos was met just three weeks ago and has studied the Bible vigorously since that time! It was so encouraging to see his convictions, as he left a promising job, and also the false teachings of his religious past, to seek the Kingdom and the righteousness of God first!
Marcos joyfully gave up everything to
enter into the Kingdom!
We were also privileged this week to share sweet fellowship with our brother and sister George & Maru Schweizer, disciples from the Mighty Ventura Region of the LA Church! Having already been married in the United States, the Schweizers held a ceremony here in Chile for both families, with Maru's side traveling from our neighboring country of Argentina! I was so honored to be asked to perform the wedding!
The ceremony, which took place in the foothills of the Andes Mountains, was very inspiring! As George & Maru exchanged vows, a fiery orange-reddish sun was setting over all of the seven million lost souls of Santiago! We were reminded of what the Scriptures declare as "[God's] name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets!" (Malachi 1:11) God's name is truly being glorified here in Chile! We are also so excited about the Fall Semester which kicks-off this week! Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to "forcefully advance" the Kingdom of Light in Latin America!!!
Sharmayne Villarino – Intern in the SF Bay ICC: "To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" (John 8:31-32) Greetings from the San Francisco Bay Church! Today, a new soul was added to God’s Kingdom when Ingrid, a student from San Francisco State University, was baptized into Christ!
Ingrid started studying the Bible a few weeks ago and after doing the first three First Principles Bible studies, she encountered some difficulties in her heart. That was because she had already made up her mind that if what the studies taught was not the same as the teachings of her previous church, then she would stop studying. She went back and forth on this conviction… but she wrestled with the Scriptures and was challenged to "hold to [Jesus'] teaching" in order to "know the truth" and be "set… free" from her sin! After much personal Bible study and prayer, Ingrid firmly decided to make the Word of God her standard over everything else. Since then, the whole church has been amazed at Ingrid's joyful and exuberant heart because of her surrender to God and His Word! To God be all the glory!!!
The glory of God's creation shouts for
joy over Ingrid's salvation!
Ron Harding: Greetings from the Mighty DC Church! "With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all." (Acts 4:33-34) Imitating our first century brothers and sisters, we continue to see the forceful advancement of God's Kingdom here in the Capital City of the United States! On Sunday, Jeremiah Clark delivered a "conference level lesson" entitled, Titanic. He charged everyone to pursue the incredible victories that come from simply allowing the Scriptures to be our standard, as he explained the "Titanic" perils of living life by worldly and religious theories (Sinner's prayer, Being a good person, etc.) Most were moved to make life-changing decisions.
In the answer to so many prayers for the DC Church to have "100 for the Lord," two were baptized earlier this week and Craig placed membership on Sunday, thus allowing us to power past our prayer goal as we reached 102 disciples! So inspiring was the baptism of Jose on Wednesday after midweek service. He was met by our incredible Singles Intern Jason Reali. Shortly after his own baptism, Jason began reaching out to Jose in 2009 and has stayed faithful to their friendship and committed to be there when Jose's heart became open. A few weeks ago, Jose's heart was softened… And on Wednesday night – after over three years since he was met – Jose proclaimed "Jesus is Lord" and was baptized!
Jose shares in the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus in baptism!
Dearest Brothers and Sisters, Let us continue to "focus our eyes on Jesus" as for most SoldOut Movement Congregations, April is our 15X Missions Contribution! Though LA's 20X Missions Contribution is in June, this month is LA's "Pledge Drive" to increase our weekly pledge from $28,300/week to $32,000/week. Therefore, let us all collectively pray to "bring to completion" this sacrifice for missions that will allow our international efforts in London, Paris, Chennai, Manila, Mexico City, Santiago and Sao Paulo to be financially sustained, as well as for Las Vegas (April), Denver (August), Dallas (December) and Sydney (December) to be planted! (2 Corinthians 8:1-9) "May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (2 Corinthians 13:14)
Much love,
Kip
